On neutrinoless double beta decay in the minimal left–right symmetric model

We analyze the general phenomenology of neutrinoless double beta decay in the minimal left–right symmetric model. We study under which conditions a New Physics dominated neutrinoless double beta decay signal can be expected in the future experiments. We show that the correlation among the different contributions to the process, which arises from the neutrino mass generation mechanism, can play a crucial role. We have found that, if no fine tuned cancelation is involved in the light–active neutrino contribution, a New Physics signal can be expected mainly from the $W_R$ – $W_R$ channel. An interesting exception is the $W_L$ – $W_R$ channel which can give a dominant contribution to the process if the right-handed neutrino spectrum is hierarchical with $M_1\lesssim $  MeV and $M_2,M_3\gtrsim $  GeV. We also discuss if a New Physics signal in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments is compatible with the existence of a successful Dark Matter candidate in the left–right symmetric models. It turns out that, although it is not a generic feature of the theory, it is still possible to accommodate such a signal with a KeV sterile neutrino as dark matter.     

Theory of neutrinoless double beta decay—A brief review

Neutrinoless double decay (0νββ-decay) is a unique probe for lepton number conservation and neutrino properties. This is a process with long and interesting history with important implications for particle physics and cosmology, but its observation is still elusive. The search for the 0νββ-decay represents the new frontiers of neutrino physics, allowing to determine the Majorana nature of neutrinos and to fix the neutrino mass scale and possible CP violation effects, which could explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. At present a complete theory is missing and, thus, to motivate and guide the experiments the mechanism mediated by light neutrinos is mostly considered. The subject of interest is an effective mass of Majorana neutrinos, which can be deduced from the measured half-life, once this process is definitely observed. The accuracy of the determination of this quantity is mainly determined by our knowledge of the nuclear matrix elements. There is a request to evaluate them with high precision, accuracy and reliability. Recently, there is an increased interest to the resonant neutrinoless double electron capture, which may also establish the Majorana nature of neutrinos. This possibility is considered as alternative and complementary to searches for the 0νββ-decay.     

Type I and new seesaw in left–right symmetric theories

We extend the Type I seesaw and suggest a new   seesaw mechanism to generate neutrino masses within the left–right symmetric theories where parity is spontaneously broken. We construct a next to minimal left–right symmetric model where neutrino masses are determined irrespective of the B−L$B-L$ breaking scale and call it the new   seesaw mechanism. In this scenario B−L$B-L$ scale can be very low. This makes B−L$B-L$ gauge boson and the quasi-Dirac heavy leptons very light. These TeV scale particles could have large impact on lepton flavor and CP violating processes. We also shed light on the phenomenological aspects of the model within the reach of the LHC.     

Can the nuclear matrix elements of neutrinoless double beta decay be measured?

A proposal which allows one in principle to measure the neutrinoless double beta decay Fermi matrix element is briefly described. By making use of the isospin conservation by strong interaction, the Fermi 0νββ nuclear matrix element can be transformed to acquire the form of an energy-weighted double Fermi transition matrix element. This allows one to reconstruct the total provided that a small isospin-breaking Fermi matrix element between the isobaric analog state in the intermediate nucleus and the ground state of the daughter nucleus could be measured, for example by charge-exchange reactions. Such a measurement could help to discriminate between the different nuclear structure models in which the calculated may differ by as much as a factor of 5.     

Cryogen-free dilution refrigerator for bolometric search of neutrinoless double beta decay (0νβ β) in 124Sn

The feasibility study for searching neutrinoless double beta decay in ¹²⁴Sn using cryogenic bolometer has been initiated. For this purpose, a custom-built cryogen-free dilution refrigerator, having a large cooling power of 1.4 mW at 120 mK, has been installed at TIFR, India. This paper describes the design, installation and performance of a cryogen-free dilution refrigerator (CFDR-1200). The performance of CFDR-1200 has been analysed using Takano’s model developed for conventional (wet) dilution refrigerators.     

Is realization of Majorana neutrino and neutrinoless double beta decay possible in the framework of standard weak interactions?

Usually it is supposed that Majorana neutrino produced in the superposition state χ _L = ν _L + (ν _L ) ^c and then follows the neutrinoless double beta decay. But since the standard weak interactions are chiral invariant then neutrino at production has definite helicity (ν _L and (ν _L ) ^c have opposite spirality). Then these neutrinos are separately produced and their superposition state cannot appear. Thus we see that for unsuitable helicity the neutrinoless double β decay is not possible even if it is supposed that neutrino is a Majorana particle (i.e. there is not a lepton number which is conserved). Also transition of Majorana neutrino ν _L into antineutrino (ν _L ) ^c at their oscillations is forbidden since helicity in vacuum holds. Transition Majora neutrino ν _L into (ν _R ) ^c (i.e., ν _L → (ν _R ) ^c ) at oscillations is unobserved since it is supposed that mass of (ν _R ) ^c is very big. If neutrino is a Dirac particle there can be transition of ν _L neutrino into (sterile) antineutrino $ \bar v_R $ \bar v_R (i.e., ν _L → $ \bar v_R $ \bar v_R ) at neutrino oscillations if there takes place double violation of lepton number. It is necessary also to remark that introducing of a Majorana neutrino implies violation of global and local gauge invariance in the standard weak interactions.     

Lepton phenomenology and neutrinoless double β-decay in superstring inspired theories

The properties of neutrinos,s-leptons,s-quarks as well as the coloured isosinglet \(\tilde D\) and \(\tilde D^c \) are studied in superstring inspired models. Furthermore the neutrinoless double β-decay process is investigated, including light and heavy majorana neutrinos, as well as the contribution of the exotic Higgs scalars of the theory. From the current experimental limits onov-ββ-decay, useful constraints are imposed on the masses and Yukawa couplings of the theory.     

Flowering to bloom of PeV scale supersymmetric left–right symmetric models

Unified models incorporating right-handed neutrino in a symmetric way generically possess parity symmetry. If this is broken spontaneously, it results in the formation of domain walls in the early Universe, whose persistence is unwanted. A generic mechanism for the destabilization of such walls is a small pressure difference signalled by difference in free energy across the walls. It is interesting to explore the possibility of such effects in conjunction with the effects that break supersymmetry in a phenomenologically acceptable way. This possibility when realized in the context of several scenarios of supersymmetry breaking, leads to an upper bound on the scale of spontaneous parity breaking, often much lower than the GUT scale. In the left–right symmetric models studied, the upper bound is no higher than 10¹¹ GeV but a scale as low as 10⁵ GeV is acceptable.     

Microscopic calculations of signals of double beta decay in a Ge detector and first application to the Heidelberg–Moscow experiment

The identification of signals of neutrinoless double beta decay is a question of extreme interest. Starting from the Monte Carlo calculated time history and spatial energy distribution of neutrinoless double beta events, for the first time the expected pulse shapes to be observed in a big ⁷⁶Ge detector have been calculated ‘microscopically  ’, by using the Poisson Superfish code for determination of the field distribution in the detector. It is shown, that for the majority of 0νββ$0\nu \beta \beta$ events it is not possible to differentiate between the contributions of different particle physics parameters entering into the 0νββ$0\nu \beta \beta$ decay process—in the mass mechanism the effective neutrino mass and the right-handed weak current parameters 〈λ〉$〈\lambda 〉$, 〈η〉$〈\eta 〉$. It is shown, that on the other hand it is possible in a ⁷⁶Ge double beta decay experiment to reject a background of larger sizes (high multiplicity) gamma events by selecting low size (low multiplicity) events. First application of the theoretical ββ   pulses to events from the line observed at Q_ββ$Q_{\beta \beta }$ [H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, I.V. Krivosheina, A. Dietz, et al., Phys. Lett. B 586 (2004) 198; H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, A. Dietz, I.V. Krivosheina, et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods A 522 (2004) 371] shows very good agreement. It is shown further, and confirmed by measurements with a collimated source, that a rather good radial position determination of ββ events in the detector is possible. By the same type of calculation it is shown that use of the pulse shapes of the 1592 keV double escape line of the 2614 keV γ-transition from ²²⁸Th for calibrating a neuronal net for search of events of neutrinoless double beta decay can be helpful.     

Higgs bosons in the left–right model

The model with the gauge group, containing one bidoublet and two triplets in the Higgs sector, is considered. The link between the constants determining the physical Higgs boson interactions and the neutrino oscillation parameters is found. It is shown that the observation of the ultrahigh-energy neutrinos with the help of the processes , gives us information on the singly charged Higgs bosons. The processes of the doubly charged Higgs bosons production, , are investigated. From the point of view of detecting the neutral Higgs bosons the process of the electron–muon recharge is studied. Received: 29 January 1999 / Revised version: 20 September 1999 / Published online: 3 February 2000     

Electroweak chiral Lagrangian for left–right symmetric models: The matter sector

The matter sector of electroweak chiral Lagrangian up to dimension four operators for left–right symmetric models with a neutral light Higgs is provided. The connection of these operators to Yukawa couplings, anomalous gauge couplings and parameters in the matter sector of conventional electroweak chiral Lagrangian is made. It is shown that there exists proper parameter space to loosen constraint for the mass of right handed gauge boson from the mass difference of neutral K meson.     

Light-by-light scattering in a photon–photon collider

We studied the feasibility of observing light-by-light scattering in a photon–photon collider based on an existing accelerator complex and a commercially available laser system. We investigated the statistical significance of the signal over the QED backgrounds through a Monte Carlo simulation with a detector model. The study showed that light-by-light scattering can be observed with a statistical significance of eight to ten sigma in a year of operation, depending on the operating conditions.     

Neutrino mixing and masses in a left–right model with mirror fermions

In the framework of a left–right model containing mirror fermions with gauge group SU(3) _C ⊗SU(2) _L ⊗SU(2) _R ⊗U(1) _Y′, we estimate the neutrino masses, which are found to be consistent with their experimental bounds and hierarchy. We evaluate the decay rates of the Lepton Flavor Violation (LFV) processes μ→eγ, τ→μγ and τ→eγ. We obtain upper limits for the flavor-changing branching ratios in agreement with their present experimental bounds. We also estimate the decay rates of heavy Majorana neutrinos in the channels N→W ^± l ^∓, N→Zν _l and N→Hν _l , which are roughly equal for large values of the heavy neutrino mass. Starting from the most general Majorana neutrino mass matrix, the smallness of active neutrino masses turns out from the interplay of the hierarchy of the involved scales and the double application of seesaw mechanism. An appropriate parameterization on the structure of the neutrino mass matrix imposing a symmetric mixing of electron neutrino with muon and tau neutrinos leads to tri-bimaximal mixing matrix for light neutrinos.     

Cerenkov emission as a positive tag of double beta decays in bolometric experiments

Active background reduction in high resolution calorimeters is a promising approach to achieve ultimate sensitivity in neutrinoless double beta decay experiments. We propose Cerenkov emission from beta rays in bolometric crystals as a viable alternative to scintillation. This novel approach could broaden the range of materials of interest for calorimetric searches of the double beta decay. We discuss the optical properties of TeO₂ crystals, as a show case.     

Why PeV scale left–right symmetry is a good thing

We report the results of in-situ characterization of ⁸⁷Rb atom cloud in a quadrupole Ioffe configuration (QUIC) magnetic trap after a radio-frequency (RF) evaporative cooling of the trapped atom cloud. The in-situ absorption images of the atom cloud have shown clear bimodal optical density (OD) profiles which indicate the Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) phase transition in the trapped gas. Also, we report here, for the first time, the measured variation in the sizes of the condensate and thermal clouds with the final frequency selected in the frequency scan of the RF-field for evaporative cooling. These results on frequency-dependent sizes of the clouds are consistent with the theoretical understanding of the BEC phenomenon in the trap.     

Kink–Antikink Interaction in a Linear Defect of the Electroconvective Structure of a Nematic

JETP Letters - Features of the interaction of two dislocations in a new type of a singular defect appearing in a one-dimensional domain structure at electroconvection in π/2-twisted nematic...